Summer Stories by the Fire
by LittleTee
Summary: A collection of eight various one-shots for the Summer Camp Event over at IWSC.


**Submitted for Week 1 of The International Wizarding School Championship: Summer Camp Event**

**Cabin: Longbottom**

**Theme: ****Kayaking**

**Main prompt: ****Write about someone who has gotten themselves into trouble, and find that they have no possible way of getting themselves out of it. (50 points)**

**Word count: 1,045**

* * *

**Just Her Luck**

Eileen Prince grabbed the steering wheel with white knuckles as she stared straight ahead, unblinkingly upon the derry Muggle street. Oh, it was tidy enough and families still mostly occupied the rows of identical houses, but already due to its aging brickwork and design she could tell that its descent into a ghetto wouldn't be too far down the road... maybe twenty years, if that.

A choked laugh escaped her.

By marrying Tobias she hadn't just condemned herself but her children to a loveless family. Something she had so desperately wanted to avoid thanks to her own childhood misery stuck in the dark, dank abode of woo that was Prince Minor. Even being the 'baby' of the family hadn't saved her from the rigid formality, ridiculous etiquette lessons, and harsh scoldings from her father and mother and the sort she associated with at school.

_"A half-giant? No, that Dippet must be daff to allow such a 'student' to be sorted much less attend classes like any other proper wizard or witch."_

_"Now I hear that a half-goblin has been sorted into Ravenclaw of all places. Not only Slazar but Rowena Ravenclaw herself would be outraged at the very notion of such a monstrosity!"_

_"Eileen I'm told by Slughorn that you have been elected to president of the Hogwarts Exploding Snap club and yet I hear that both those half-breeds are still members of that very same club. Explain yourself."_

Was it any surprise that she had dreamed and looked for a prince to rescue her away from such narrowed minded prejudices?

She smirked as she wiped a bit of moisture from her eyes. If was just her rotten luck that her prince had been Tobias bloody Snape, a toad pretending to be honorable and charming only when it suited him to be so. Which was mostly when he was trying to earn a quick pound without investing any real effort into the deal.

She should have known since that was how she had met him almost a year ago at t Alexandra Park. She and Elizabeth, her sister, had decided on a lark to tour the tracks in the Muggle steeplechase circuit. It had been exciting and novel, but also the mark of her downfall for when she had spotted Tobias standing a few yards away cheering on his horse so animatedly in his long woolen coat and his hat tilted to the left, she couldn't help but find him dashing.

He had called her his lucky charm and she had thoroughly enjoyed being cherished by someone. Sadly, that had only lasted for the season and a fortnight. The horses had stopped running and so had Tobias's sudden surge of good luck. He had verbally slapped her when she had tried to help escort him back to his home. Apparently, she had only been a cheap charm that its varnish had rubbed away to the subpar alloy underneath. He had shrugged off her help and had stumbled into his home himself.

He wasn't any more receptive to her charms the next morning either, and not wanting any more of this Tobias herself she had caused the kettle to pour onto his lap as she slammed the door and apparated away.

That should have been the end of it, but providence had other notions. One that had seemingly sealed her fate to a man she had fallen out of love to... but what was a witch to do when she discovered she was expecting and not married?

* * *

"_How dare you bring dishonor upon this House!" _her father had boomed seconds after she had broken the news to her parents.

"_What House is your wizard from, dear?" _Her sainted mother had asked as she stood and left her piano to take her daughter's hands in hers. "_If he is from the sacred few then he will do what is right by you and … your child."_

Eileen had begun to cry then. She had grown up never meeting her father's approval, besides her admittance to Hogwarts and her sorting into Slytherin, but how was she to cope if her mother shunned her—which she knew would be the result of her reply. If only she wasn't just an atrocious liar.

"_He isn't from the twenty-eight."_ She had finally sobbed into her mother's shoulder.

"_By Merlin, do not tell me it was one of those _half-breeds _you pal around with?"_

"_Surely not, Eileen is not that type of witch, Lucien." _Thank the Heavens for her mother's defense.

It would be one of the things Eileen would miss most about her mum.

Her father snarled. "_Clearly not so, since she has never been engaged yet alone joined to another in a hand-fasting ceremony and yet she is carrying our grandchild. A har—"_

"_Lucien, enough. Your heart pressure, you know." _Stern yet caring, that was her mother.

"_The father of the child is a," _Eileen paused as she slowly pushed herself away from her mother's tender, comforting embrace. "_Muggle."_

Only a muffled gasp escaped her mother before the drawing-room had grown coldly quiet.

It would be the calm before the storm that rained down upon her. Her head still ached from where her father had snatched her head back as he yelled at her for an eternity before throwing her out of the manor.

* * *

Well, what had come to pass was over and it did not do one any benefit to dwelling in the past.

Squaring her shoulders she purposefully strolled up the uneven path and knocked seven times upon the weather-worn door.

Her child needed a home. Something she herself was now without since her parents had thrown her out that morning upon hearing about her plight-there was simply no place for an unwed mother in the Prince household.

It just was poor luck that it would be here in Spinners End with a mean drunk for a father and a disavowed witch for a mum.

_Fini_


End file.
